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The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year 2020

The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year 2020 names 21 books across 2 categories. 15 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.

Fiction

  1. Deacon King Kong by James McBridesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alamsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Luster by Raven Leilanisource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Memorial by Bryan Washingtonsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Sharks In the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburnsource (opens in a new tab)
  6. The Awkward Black Man by Walter Mosleysource (opens in a new tab)
  7. The Cold Millions by Jess Waltersource (opens in a new tab)
  8. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezisource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evanssource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennettsource (opens in a new tab)

Nonfiction

  1. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkersonsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Having and Being Had by Eula Bisssource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolkersource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Is Rape a Crime? A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto by Michelle Bowdlersource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankinesource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Tretheweysource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hongsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wienersource (opens in a new tab)
  9. Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Sauntsource (opens in a new tab)
  10. Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1989 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchinosource (opens in a new tab)
  11. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine Maysource (opens in a new tab)

About the The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year

The Globe's year-end Fiction and Nonfiction critics' picks. Picks from the same year-end package for mystery, poetry, sports, graphic novels, science, New England, children's, middle grade, and young adult books are left out. 2006-2009 lists are the boxed title lists that ran with the year-end fiction and nonfiction essays on boston.com. In 2011 and 2014 each section was the combined picks of two or three critics; books picked by more than one critic appear once. Missing years: no 2010 adult list could be found in the Wayback Machine (only a children's list was archived). No list is ranked. bostonglobe.com robots.txt blocks AI crawlers, so no Globe page was fetched directly: Globe pages were read through Wayback Machine captures, and the 2022-2024 lists were read from the Flourish card embeds the Globe pages load. Secondary sources: yearendlists.com copies of the 2020-2025 lists were used to cross-check counts and to correct three page typos (Walter Mosley, Natasha Trethewey, and the title Loved and Missed). Other page typos were corrected against existing catalog entries (Tenth of December, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Jodi Kantor) and against the publisher listing for Helon Habila's Travelers. The 2016 list files Svetlana Alexievich's Secondhand Time under Fiction, as the Globe did.

Organization: The Boston Globe. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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